Tag Archives: Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Water Cooling Kit is weird, cute, and probably overkill

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While 3D printing blasted open the doors for creatives to bring their designs to life, the Raspberry Pi can be credited for empowering not just makers and modders but also a younger generation of budding engineers and scientists by giving them access to a cheap, small yet powerful computer. The single-board computer or SBC has become the basis for many electronics projects and DIY solutions, ranging from smart home security systems to out-of-this-world “cyberdeck” computers. The Raspberry Pi 5, the latest and so far most powerful model available, does have certain performance limits, but you can overclock its processor to really squeeze out all that you can, at the expense of overheating the board, of course. The tiny computer will then need some cooling system, but this particular kit tries to take lessons learned from desktop PCs and apply them in an effective but honestly comical manner.

Designer: seeed studio

Water cooling is a well-known solution used in desktop computers to prevent the system from overheating while keeping the processor operating at maximum efficiency. Of course, water doesn’t actually touch the sensitive electronics but draws heat away instead. Cool water travels toward the hotter areas while the heated water travels away from the hot spots and gets cooled by something like a fan. Given the space required to safely and effectively implement it, it’s no surprise that this system is usually only found on large desktop towers.

Compared to those gargantuan computers, the Raspberry Pi only has a fraction of the power but it can still be pushed to the limit by overclocking its CPU. The most common solutions in the market are small heat sinks and tiny fans that provide passive and active cooling, respectively, but some might feel that those just aren’t enough. For really power-hungry setups, this water cooling kit made especially for the Raspberry Pi 5 will probably suffice, if not actually excessive.

The Water Cooling Kit is easily more than five times the size of the small board computer, composed of a water tank and a large fan that cools down the hot water. This contraption is connected to a Raspberry Pi via two silicone hoses, one for hot water and another for cool water, with a radiator sitting on top of the Raspberry Pi’s processor. This kit supposedly halves the temperature of an overclocked Raspberry Pi 5 down to a toasty 37C, depending on the load.

But, yes, you will have to sacrifice a lot to have such a water-cooled Raspberry Pi, starting with the $120 price tag. While the kit can work with multiple Raspberry Pi boards to maximize the cooling efficiency, you’ll have to buy the extra hoses and radiators to make that work. You also definitely lose the Raspberry Pi’s biggest benefit, its small form factor that allows it to be used in almost any project imaginable. Then again, some of those projects do require pushing the small computer to its limit, at which point you might need something over-the-top like this.

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Analog digital hybrid clock presses the snooze button for you

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One of the biggest struggles I have every morning is the constant battle between me and my smartphone’s alarm clock. I set alarms every 30 minutes for a period of 2-3 hours but more often than not, I still hit the snooze button so all my alarms run into each other. I’ve tried putting my phone away from me so I am forced to get up if I want to snooze it but that only results in me being in a horrible mood. But if i want a more convenient way to snooze (and lose), then this new kind of alarm clock may be what I need.

Designer: Nico Tangara for BHH Innovation Lab

The Self-Snoozing Alarm Clock may become your best friend or your worst enemy, depending on how you actually look at the snooze button. Instead of having to snooze the device yourself, it actually comes with a hand to snooze itself. It’s a device that uses a fusion of analog and digital and is powered by the Raspberry Pi compact computer module to help you beat the snooze button or actually fall victim to it.

The alarm clock looks like your typical analog clock with its rectangular box but with a digital clock showing on the screen. It is connected to a servo or an actuator that is able to push parts of the device with precision. The mechanism enables this tiny hand to extend from the clock and manually press the snooze button which will then activate the system to keep snoozing until you actually stop it.

If you have an appointment that you need to get to, then this may not be the best alarm clock to have beside you as it will keep you snoozing indefinitely. But it does help you in a sense that you don’t have to be the one to push the snooze button on your phone, although that may not be the best thing if you really think about it.

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This funky retro-futuristic computer is actually a laptop in disguise

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You can actually use this rather fancy computer that looks like a TV prop, but whether it’s usable is a different question entirely.

We’ve seen a lot of makers, tinkerers, engineers, and even designers take a stab at making their own personal computers, with an emphasis on “personal.” Thanks to the availability of off-the-shelf parts for computers and the ubiquity of 3D printing, it has become easier but still not trivial to bring some of those dream designs and visions to life. Many of the DIY computer projects we’ve seen, while admirable, often fall short of looking ready for use or having enough power to actually be useful. That is what sets this “Mainboard Terminal” apart from the crowd for not only looking quite striking but also for having the literal guts of a modern laptop.

Designer: Penk Chen

The majority of projects we see that involve crafting your own computer often involve the Raspberry Pi or one of its cousins. These are small, low-power single-board computers or SBCs that are very easy on the pocket, making them a crowd favorite. The catch is that they don’t exactly have enough muscle to run most computing tasks, let alone something as heavy as Windows, not unless you’re an experienced Linux user that can get by with very minimal computing resources.

The RPi, as it is lovingly nicknamed, isn’t the only game in town, of course, and there are other SBCs out there that take things up a notch in terms of performance and software support, but the newest addition to that roster really changes the game. Although it’s primarily meant to repair or upgrade the world’s most modular and most repairable laptop, the Framework Mainboard can also be used as a standalone computer if you have the right parts to make it work. The catch? Prices start at $399 versus a Raspberry Pi’s humble $35.

Needless to say, hacker and modder extraordinaire Penk Chen took advantage of that openness to craft another out of this world computer. The same engineer introduced the world to his Penkesu pocket computer, ala a cyberdeck, and is now taking inspiration from a different genre. The off-white colorway, the chunky keycaps, and the curved silhouette will make it look at home on a retropunk TV set.

It’s not all looks, of course, because it has the beating heart of a typical laptop. It can run any operating system in theory, though its creator went with the free (as in speech) and open source Ubuntu Linux distribution for simplicity. As with his other projects, Chen provides the list of parts used as well as the files for 3D printing that oddly-shaped chassis. Most of these parts can be bought from online retailers, but, as usual, you’ll need access to a 3D printer one way or another.

The biggest strike against this otherwise usable computer is the 5-inch 1080×1080 round LCD screen. In addition to being smaller than your smartphone’s display, the square aspect ratio doesn’t work well with content and software that were designed with a rectangular screen in mind. Plus, the circular display means that parts of the screen will be cut off all the time. It’s a case of form over function, but since it’s a “normal” computer, it’s probably possible to design an external port that will connect to a second, more “normal” monitor as well.

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This chunky palm-sized DIY laptop cleverly hides a split ergonomic keyboard

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We’ve seen our fair share of small laptops over the past years, some of them made and sold by actual manufacturers, while others are works of love and passion by hobbyists. Tiny laptops, sometimes called palmtops, have the advantage of portability over normal notebooks, but they are terrible when it comes to comfort while typing. You can only cram so many keys in such a small space, forcing designers and users to perform finger acrobatics to activate additional keys. That’s not even considering yet the ergonomics of bending your wrists to fit your fingers in such a cramped space. That is the problem that this bulky “palmtop” tries to address by miraculously fitting a slightly more comfortable keyboard in a 7-inch space.

Designer: Daniel Norris

This contraption isn’t called the Chonky Palmtop for no reason. Unlike other DIY laptop projects, this one makes no qualms about being a large plastic brick. It’s not going to be usable on your palm, though you probably won’t use it like that anyway. After all, what makes this special is how it tries to make typing a bit more comfortable on a laptop of this size.

The secret is that it splits the keyboard into two halves, adopting a layout that is similar to those ergonomic keyboards you’d find in the market. Those, however, are giants compared even to regular keyboards, so the designer that created this wonder of engineering adopted a sliding mechanism that allows the halves to fan in and out as needed. Even this kind of keyboard layout is still no match for a proper typing tool, but it is loads better than the cramped keyboards on some 8-inch laptops.

That mechanism is one reason why this machine is so “chonky,” but it isn’t the only culprit. A full-sized Raspberry Pi 4 is used, along with additional components for the battery and the controller for the 7-inch touch screen display. Very few compromises were made, so these pieces are used in their full form, leading to a very large chassis to house everything. That and the keycaps themselves are your chocolate keyboard sizes, adding to the overall height of the laptop.

As with most DIY computers, assembling this one takes a lot of effort and soldering work. Fortunately, the thinking and designing involved are already done, and Daniel Norris generously lists almost everything you need. What software you run on this thing really depends on you, but the RPi itself is quite preferential to specific flavors of Linux.

Of course, it does raise the question of whether you’d even want to use a computer of that size for your everyday needs, but it also raises the need for better computer keyboards in general. Hopefully, laptop designers will figure out a mechanism like this that will enable ergonomic keyboards to fit in cramped spaces, making portable computers less of a pain, literally.

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Someone managed to fit an entire Raspberry Pi computer inside the body of a cassette

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This isn’t a throwback. If nothing, it’s actually a throw-forward. Designed to show how far we’ve come in a span of 4 decades, this cassette has a fully-functioning Raspberry Pi computer inside it running a ZX Spectrum emulator inside it. Hacked together by Stuart Brand, the cassette pays tribute to his first-ever computer, the ZX Spectrum. The ZX Spectrum was an 8-bit personal home computer developed by Sinclair Research. Ironically enough, Stuart would write programs on the ZX Spectrum and store them on cassette tapes. 40 years later, the entire ZX Spectrum computer can practically fit inside the same cassette’s plastic body, with a few minor adjustments made to allow the parts and ports to line up perfectly.

Designer: Stuart Brand

Making use of his time between jobs, Brand decided to head down to his garage and brush up on his tinkering and coding skills. “I wouldn’t have had a clue how to build any of this stuff before lockdown,” he said. “It goes to prove that you never know what you’re capable of until you give it a go.”

Faced with a space constraint, Stuart chose the Raspberry Pi Zero W for the project. “Cassette shells make for a great form factor,” he said, “I started with a plain black spare cassette shell and used a small hand file and side cutters to remove the plastic supports in preparation for fitting the heatsink.” The heatsink (shown at the top of the article) was created from scratch too, using a sheet of scrap metal and a bandsaw to fashion the crude shape of the metal heatsink. A Dremel, needle files, and fine-grit sandpaper were used to finesse the shape.

The 5mm interior of the cassette meant Stuart had to hack together his solution. To ensure that the PCB of the Raspberry Pi Zero W didn’t end up peeking out through the cassette’s two holes, he ended up carving out a portion of the PCB, ensuring the illusion was complete. Thankfully, this didn’t affect the functionality of his computer. “I lost some GPIO ports, but it was well worth it to get the tape looking right.” Stuart then cleverly used the top and the bottom of the cassette to house his ports, allowing you to easily connect cables to the device and get it working. That required a bit of cutting and sanding too, although it didn’t do anything to the cassette’s front profile, leaving it looking exactly the way it should. In fact, to complete his build, Stuart even printed labels that he would then stick on top of the cassette! He now uses his ZX Spectrum Pi Cassette as a ‘pick up and play’ device whenever he fancies “a quick bash at some old school gaming.”

Sadly, though, there aren’t any schematics for others to build their own ZX Spectrum Pi Cassettes. Describing himself as a haphazard tinkerer with little electronics experience, Stuart went into the project headfirst, with little planning or detailing, and with the entire process effectively mapped out in his head. “I don’t have any schematics to share,” he apologizes, “and never measure anything.” His only standing advice to people looking to emulate his build is to “leave far more room for cables than you think you’ll need.”

Stuart’s build was featured in this month’s official Raspberry Pi magazine MagPi issue 116.

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Pockit is a tiny modular computer that’s not only cute but also useful

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The dream of a modular computer you can keep in your pocket has been around for quite some time now. The idea of simply swapping out components for features you need at a moment’s notice is the stuff of science fiction, and a few tech fans and companies, including Motorola and LG, tried their hand at bringing modular phones to life. None stayed around long enough to actually be commercial successes, but that never stopped tinkerers from making their dreams come true. A lot of DIY projects have surfaced looking like weird Frankenstein experiments, but this working prototype is not only usable but also a bit pleasing to look at.

Designer: Anil Reddy

Unlike other attempts at a modular pocket computer, Pockit’s white exterior hides most of the ugly circuits you’d associated with DIY projects. Instead of daunting pins and cables, the system makes use of magnets and POGO connectors, those golden circles you’d find in many mobile accessories these days, to make connecting and removing modules as painless as possible. You simply have to lift them up or place them near the connection points, and they’ll easily snap into place.

The point of a modular computer is that you can add functionality at a moment’s notice without having to replace the computer itself. That depends on the number and features of the modules available, and Pockit has quite a large collection, ranging from sensors to LED lights to screens and keypads.

With such an easy-to-use modular system, there is almost no limit to what a single Pockit computer can do. You can use it to control smart home appliances, create entertaining light shows, or set up an ad hoc security camera. While there are products designed for specific purposes, the advantage of Pockit is that you can use the came base for another purpose when your needs change.

Since it’s running on an RPi, you have a true computer available in the palm of your hands. If you’re fine with a small screen and thumb-typing like in the old BlackBerry days, it could serve you as a mobile computer. You can, of course, also hook it up to a larger screen and use it as a desktop.

Pockit’s magnet-based modular system does mean that it might not survive your pocket, despite its name. The chassis for the base and modules are 3D printed, so there is also a potential for using more sustainable materials other than typical plastic. There is no word yet on whether its designer will turn Pockit into a commercial product or release schematics as open source, but its very existence proves the possibilities of a modular pocket computer that is easy to use and looks quite charming as well.

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This DIY pocket computer will make you feel like a cyberpunk hacker once you’re done

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If you’ve dreamed of making your own computer that looked straight out of a movie set, all the planets and stars have aligned to make it happen.

Although things called single-board computers have existed before it, the Raspberry Pi can be credited for giving birth to a new generation of creators, makers, and hackers that democratized processes that were once available only to big companies. Every day, the world is greeted with half a dozen or so “hacks” that try to solve a problem or even solve a problem no one thought was even a problem, using only off-the-shelf materials assembled together in garages or basements. Not all of them turn out to be useful or even attractive, but some do pique our interests, like this DIY pocket computer that actually works like a regular computer.

Designer: Penk Chen

Called the Penkesu Computer after its creator, the ultra-compact device that resembles a bulky communicator from the good old Nokia days has a distinctive charm despite its unpolished looks. While you probably wouldn’t use it for serious work, the wide but short laptop has the makings of a cyberpunk prop, specifically a cyberdeck that’s often used by characters to access the net or other computers. If you’re into that genre and style, the Penkesu Computer will definitely tickle your fancy, and it will undoubtedly turn heads if you use it in some cafe.

It’s not for sale, though, but makers and hackers will probably love even more the fact that you can make one yourself. Penk Chen has generously provided the exact list of materials and components to buy, as well as the pattern for 3D printing the enclosure. Almost anyone can freely follow in his footsteps, though you’d at least need to have access to a 3D printer.

There might be a bit of soldering involved, though a lot of the parts also just need to be plugged into each other. It isn’t a trivial project for beginners, but there are also variants of this kind of DIY project that are more involved and more complicated. It’s an endeavor that will definitely generate a euphoric feeling of satisfaction when completed, earning you your “hacker” badge.

The best part? This isn’t just a prop or toy device. The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W inside can actually run a full Linux-based operating system. You won’t be flying with it, of course, but it can still let you get stuff done, complete with a hacker feeling.

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The Thumby Is the World’s Smallest Game Boy

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The whole point of game systems like the Nintendo Game Boy was to make them small enough to carry in your pocket and play on the go. But what if you’ve got really tiny pockets?.. or really tiny fingers? Then you need the Thumby!

Created by TinyCircuits, the Thumby is by all accounts the world’s smallest handheld gaming system. It measures just 1.2″ x 0.7″ x 0.3″ and packs a Raspberry Pi RP2040 processor, 2MB of onboard storage, and a tiny 72×40 OLED screen. It’s also got a really small D-Pad and two buttons, but there’s no way I’d be able to push the right ones with my ape-like digits.

It comes pre-loaded with five retro-inspired games so you can start playing right away, but it’s also fully programmable. Connect the Thumby’s Micro USB port to your computer, and you can create your own custom games using MicroPython or the Arduino IDE. Plus, it’s built on an Open Source platform, which means modding and tweaking are encouraged. TinyCircuits also made it so you can play head-to-head by connecting two Thumbys with a link cable.

Best of all, Thumby won’t break the bank. You can pre-order a Thumby on Kickstarter now for just $19 for the classic grey color or $24 in a color case.

 

The folding iPhone may be more of a reality than concept, thanks to this YouTuber’s rough prototype

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If there was one person on the planet I’d trust with hacking together a folding iPhone, it’s Scotty Allen. Based out of Shenzhen (and for a good reason), Scotty has a penchant for tinkering with electronics and we’ve even covered some of his exploits before, including building his iPhone entirely from scratch, and even adding a headphone jack to the iPhone 7 after Apple famously removed the beloved feature.

Of late, Scotty’s been obsessed by the idea of a folding iPhone, so much so that he decided to embark on the journey of making one. Now this video is by no means anything close to what Scotty’s gearing for (and he even talks about the obstacles against him), but it’s an introduction to this new journey he’s planning on taking, and he even has a resourceful hacker-friend who can help him realize this dream.

So what is the video about? In short, Scotty managed to get his hands on a flexible display that he hooked to a control board and subsequently to a Raspberry Pi 4. The Raspberry Pi was then instructed to mirror an iPhone’s screen, bringing the familiar home page to the flexible display. The flexible OLED doesn’t even have a digitizer module, which means it doesn’t register touch functions either. Unfortunately, that’s about as far as Scotty’s gotten, because it isn’t as simple as putting a flexible display on a rigid iPhone and calling it a folding device. Both pieces of hardware need to communicate seamlessly, and Scotty mentions how difficult that can be, given that the protocol MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) isn’t exactly accessible to everyone and that you really need to be a major player to get access to the documentation and the NDAs. Moreover, iOS itself is a closed-source operating system, which means building a device that’s iOS-compatible is another challenge altogether. However, Scotty seems determined… and as someone who’s literally built an entire iPhone from scratch by buying parts off the roads and markets of Shenzhen, he’s quite literally positioned to be the one guy who can beat Apple to the punch when it comes to building the first folding iPhone!

Video Credits: Scotty Allen